Some info

I just received an update from Dr. Haman, the intensivist. Tom is doing much better (Dr. Haman's words). He said his leg is doing well. The blood tests this morning showed a very high white blood cell count. It will take a few days for the cultures to grow but his thought is there is infection in Tom's bloodstream resulting from the leg infection. Tom is still on the BP pressers and his BP is better. As long as he is on the pressers, they will keep him sedated and on the respirator. He said it will probably take 2-3 days for his blood pressure to come up. They have reduced the oxygen supplement to 50% (it was 100 yesterday) so that is good. Honestly, I expected him to be off the respirator when I got here this morning so this news is discouraging and scary. My wonderful boss came by last night to visit. Having recently gone through the respirator situation with her husband, she helped me understand what to expect. His nurse for today is Thomas. He told me a couple of docs came in this morning and looked at his leg. He wanted to know what Dr. Haman told me (?!?!). Thomas informed me my husband was very sick (duh)! I'm trying to get the exact WBC but due to HIPPA rules, they don't want to give it to me. It's strange that the ER doc printed out all of his blood tests and handed them to me yesterday. I decided on the way to the hospital this morning that if Tom and I ever renew our wedding vows, I am only going to commit to "for better" and "in health". Is that too mean? In keeping with that bad wife vibe, I probably will not sit here all day if Tom is going to be sedated. I was already planning on going home during the blackout hours tonight and staying there. I'll probably go run errands, come back for a little while for any update and then head home. I took the liberty of writing my name and cell phone number on their marker board so they can call me if anything changes. Tom appears to be as comfortable as possible. He doesn't flinch when an alarm goes off. With all these meds hanging over his head, something is always going off. At least I can tease him about all the good sleep he is getting - thanks to propofol. His night nurse told me that a lot of fluid is draining from Tom's leg, which is great. Unfortunately he's probably going to end up with one leg a lot small than the other until the rest of the fluid gets out of his tissue. It would be nice if that can get under control while he is here also. It will sure make the physical therapy for his back a lot easier. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like he is going to be here for quite a while. Some good friends of ours are in town this weekend. Tom was really looking forward to their visit. I'm going to pray that maybe he will be able to get off the respirator and they can visit with him tomorrow afternoon as planned. Just got the blood tests. Tom's WBC is 39.9 - yikes! Normal is below 10. His liver numbers are high but his kidney numbers don't look too bad. I'm going to send them to UAB, it might bump up is MELD score a little. I was bummed to miss my fav kick-box and body-pump classes this morning, not to mention seeing my workout buddies. Maybe I can sneak in a bike ride this afternoon. My legs are getting flabby - can't have that while biking in Tuscany! Please keep praying, Tom is strong and I'm confident he will recover.